Fortnum & Mason apologises for party snub to UK Paralympians

Fortnum & Mason has apologised for a “failure of communication” to Paralympians who were not invited to a party which Olympians attended, after the Paris medallists met the king at Buckingham Palace.

Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes were hosted at a reception at the royal residence on Thursday 7 November to celebrate Britain’s success this summer.

But Zac Shaw, a Paralympic visually-impaired sprinter, said he had trawled his emails for an invitation to the after-party hosted by the store after one of his friends, an Olympian, mentioned it to him.

Neither Shaw nor his partner, Ali Smith, also a Paralympic sprinter, could find an invite so the pair assumed it was an event for Olympians only.

Shaw, who won silver in the mixed 4x100m and bronze in the 100m T12 in Paris, said not to have been invited to Thursday’s after-party was an example of how the two sets of athletes were treated differently.

He said: “It’s just hurtful and I mean you have situations like this honestly so frequently, whether it’s brands, prize money, even hosting a Paralympic race at a competition.

“For me … being under the same roof as the king and all the Olympic and Paralympic medallists in one place, but the Paralympic medallists have to get in the car and drive home while the Olympic medallists get to enjoy a four-hour after-party with champagne bottles with their name engraved into it. It’s just unfair.”

In a screenshot posted by Shaw on Instagram a spokesperson for Fortnum & Mason apologised and said a separate event for Paralympians is “in the works”. The message added: “We are really sorry that we could not do both of the planned parties together, which would have been our preference, but we are restricted on space and simply could not have fitted everyone in at the same time. However, there has been a failure of communication on our part here and we are truly sorry.”

Shaw said the response was “not good enough at all” and he felt it had made it “worse”.

Fortnum & Mason said: “We entered into this with good intentions but recognise that we have made a mistake here for which we fully apologise. We have been planning for, and of course will be honoured to host, a ParalympicsGB celebratory event at Fortnum’s and an invitation to do that has been made, but we do understand the hurt we have caused by not making our plans clear to the athletes earlier.”